By Anupama Nair
Mumbai, April 26
India is country where cricket is very popular and cricketers are treated as God’s. Cricket is most popular in India and Pakistan. With the World Test Championship in June 2021, I thought I will take you on a journey on the cricket history in the Subcontinent. The movie Lagaan was a super hit because of the Cricket theme and villagers defeating the mighty British.
Cricket was introduced to India by the British East India Company in the 18th Century. The first Cricket Club was established in 1792. In 1848, the Parsi community in Bombay, formed the Oriental Cricket Club, the first cricket club to be established by Indians. After slow beginnings, the Europeans eventually invited the Parsi’s to play a match in 1877. By 1912, people of all religions of Bombay played a quadrangular tournament with the Europeans every year.] In the early 1900s, some Indians went on to play for the England cricket team. Some of these, such as Maharaja Ranjit Singh and Duleep Singh were greatly appreciated by the British, and. In 1911, an Indian team went on their first official tour of the British Isles, but only played English county teams and not the England cricket team.
India's national cricket team did not play its first Test match until 25 June 1932 under the Captain C.K Naidu at Lord’s becoming the sixth team to be granted test cricket status. India hosted its first Test series in the year 1933. England was the visiting team that played 2 Tests in Bombay and Calcutta. The visitors easily won the series 2–0. The Indian team continued to improve throughout the 1930s and '40s but did not achieve an international victory during this period. In the early 1940s, India didn't play any Test cricket due to the War. The team's first series as an independent country was in late 1947 against Sir Donald Bradman's Invincible (a name given to the Australian team then). It was also the first Test series India played against a different opponent. Australia won the five-match series 4–0, with Bradman tormenting the Indian bowling in his final Australian summer. India subsequently played their first Test series at home, but against the West Indies in 1948. West Indies won the 5-Test series 1–0. India recorded their first Test victory, in their 24th match, against England at Madras in 1952, which was a great achievement for a newly independent India
In its first fifty years of international cricket, India was one of the weaker teams, winning only 35 of the first 196 Test matches it played. The team, however, gained strength in the 1970s with the emergence of players such as batsmen Gavaskar, Vishwanath, Kapil Dev and the spin bowler’s like Bedi and Prasanna and Chandrashekar.
India maintained their unbeaten home record against Australia in Test series after victory in 2001. The series is ever there in our minds and all Indians remember the match with pride. The series was famous for the Kolkata Test match, in which India became only the third team in the history of Test cricket to win a Test match after following on. Australian Captain Steve Waugh labelled India as the "Final Frontier" because of his side's inability to win a Test series in India. Victory was only possible due to epic innings of Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman and great bowling of Harbajan Singh. Victory in 2001 against the Australians marked the beginning of a dream run for India till now, winning Test matches in Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, West Indies and England. India under Virat Kohli managed to win two series in Australia in 2018-2019 and 2020-2021. Winning the series after the infamous 32 all out was a great achievement due to youngsters Rishab Pant, Shardul Thakur, Ashwin, Hanuman Vihary and Washington Sundar. Then we defeat England 3-1 in a home series which is again commendable as we lost the First Test in Madras. But we still have a long way to go as we need to win in New Zealand and England
The Advent of ODI (1971)
The advent of One Day International (ODI) cricket in 1971 created a new era in the cricket world. However, India was not considered strong in ODIs at this point and batsmen such as the captain Gavaskar were known for their defensive approach to batting. India began as a weak team in ODIs and did not qualify for the second round in the first two editions of the Cricket World Cup.
In contrast, India had strong Test team by then and was particularly strong at home, where their combination of stylish batsmen and spinners were at their best. India set a then Test record in the third Test against the West Indies at Port-of-Spain in 1976, when they chased 403 to win, thanks to 112 from Viswanath. This West Indian defeat is considered to be a watershed in the history of their cricket four-man pace attack instead. In November 1976, the team established another record by scoring 524 for 9 declared against New Zealand at Kanpur without any individual batsman scoring a century. There were six fifties, the highest being 70 by Mohinder Amarnath. This innings was only the eighth instance in Test cricket where all eleven batsmen reached double figures.
India’s ODI fortunes changed by winning the third edition of the World Cup in 1983. Kapil’s devils did the impossible and defeated two-time champions West Indies
In 1984, India won the Asia Cup and in 1985, won the World Championship of Cricket in Australia. The 1980s saw Gavaskar and Kapil Dev (India's best all-rounder to date) at the pinnacle of their careers. Gavaskar made a Test record 34 centuries as he became the first man to reach the invincible 10,000 run mark. Kapil Dev later became the highest wicket-taker in Test cricket with 434 wickets.
Then came the era of God of Cricket—Sachin Tendulkar who made his debut against Imran Khan’s Pakistan in 1989. Anil Kumble made his debut in 1990. India’s fortunes began to change when players like Srinath, Sehwag and Gambhir and Ganguly and Dravid entered the team. Match fixing scandal hit the news. Azharudin was banned for life.
The Indian team underwent major improvements under the captaincy of Ganguly and guidance of John Wright. The Natwest series is also known for India's highest ODI run-chase of 325 runs at Lord's, against England. In the same year, India was joint-winners of the ICC Champions Trophy with Sri Lanka and then went to South Africa, where they reached the final of the World Cup 2003, only to be beaten by Australia.
But the crowning glory was when India won the World Cup 2011 at home. In 1983 I was too young to understand the meaning of winning the World Cup, but the 2011 World Cup changed all that and the heart swelled with pride to see MS Dhoni lift the coveted trophy. The icing on the cake was defeating Australia and arch rivals Pakistan in the World Cup. From then on India has been a difficult team to beat. We defeated England 2-1.
T20s
This is the most popular format today. India won the inaugural World Cup in 2007 in South Africa under MS Dhoni. India has won many matches, but could not win any more World Cups. India defeated England 3-2 in the recent series winning all the formats. Indian Premier League is the most popular T20 series. Hope India win the T20 World Cup.
